About

‘Catching Sunlight’ is an album filled with gorgeous melodies, drenched in sensual harmonies and driven by subtle, shifting rhythms and strange, exotic time signatures. Commissioned by The Lunar Saxophone Quartet, the music weaves and intertwines delightful dancing melodies over the rhythm section’s steady, supple pulse and Neil Yates’ floating trumpet. Both the title and subtitle (Music for an Imaginary Film) convey an impressionism confirmed by pianist-composer Dave Stapleton’s writing, which is so well conceived that it s sometimes difficult to separate the written from the improvised.

Press

‘This disc is without a doubt one this year’s best and certainly one of those under-recognized gems that shouldn’t be ignored’. DOWNTOWN MUSIC GALLERY, NEW YORK

‘Pieces rank among the best performances I’ve heard all year’. INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY

‘Dave Stapleton’s writing is so well conceived that it’s sometimes difficult to separate the written from the improvised’. IRISH TIMES ****

‘…with a sound halfway between Miles and Arve Henriksen. An excellent recording with standout contributions from both composer and trumpeter’. JAZZWISE ****

‘His compositional building blocks, repeated ostinati, short motifs that shift through registers and keys, and choppy phrasing alternated with smoother melodic or freely improvised sections, remain the basis of his technique, but the structures are tighter and his playing more deftly controlled than on his earlier recordings’. PIANO MAGAZINE

‘Rich and colourful music from one of the UK’s most talented and ambitious young jazz composers’. THE JAZZ MANN ****